Uncool things about the Sixties

The Sixties -- ah, the Sixties. A time of free love, flower power, and all things hippie and mellow. Grass was cheap, and everyone went from being Fifties uptight to righteously cooooolllll....Right? Everything was sooo wonderful...

Crime and urban blight. In the US, the crime rate was three times the rate it is now. Urban centers were emptying as the middle class fled to the suburbs and shopping centers displaced the great old department stores. There was a reason why hippies were able to occupy so many city apartments at rates an unemployed college dropout could afford -- no one else wanted to live there!

Sex, Censorship, and Birth Control.Yes, The Pill was invented in 1959, and marketed heavily. But birth control of any kind was still illegal in many states. "Shocking" books (which contained descriptions -- not pictures -- of explicit sex) had to be decriminalized one by one by court order. Trials would go on for weeks deciding whether anyone would be able to read Naked Lunch or Eros Magazine. Free love generally meant that the woman was free to say "yes" -- anytime the man wanted it. Saying "no" meant a) you were still repressed or b) you were a man-hater. (Of course, the man could still change his mind back to the old double standard any time he wanted.) Birth control not working? Maybe your parents can send you somewhere...otherwise, I know a trick with some gin and a coathanger...

Food.Food prices were much more expensive, in relative terms, than now. "The grocery bill" was an obsession even into the middle class, and the poor did indeed go hungry. Part of this was the American diet, which was much more meat-oriented than now, part was the fact that there was a great deal less food. Fruits and vegetables were a laugh, in modern terms -- the average grocery carried about eight varieties of fruit, and a dozen vegetables.